Twitter's 'Mystery Hollywood' implodes: @MysteryExec was a fake

The Twitter handle @MysteryExec, the most prominent voice in a small and tight-knit community of showbiz types who for years have tweeted anonymously, candidly and often about their batshit crazy profession, deleted his account sometime late Tuesday night. So did his sidekick, the tart-tongued @MysteryVP.

The reason: Mystery Executive is not an executive at all. Mystery VP is vice president of nothing.

Multiple sources close to the people behind the accounts tell Mashable that @MysteryExec and @MysteryVP were a young male/female writing duo just trying to make it in Hollywood whose prank turned into a mini-phenomenon. What started as an outlet for their frustration turned into a movement that thousands of people, including this writer and dozens of prominent players in Hollywood, readily bought into.

And in recent months, as the ruse began to unravel, the entire Mystery showbiz-on-Twitter community began to crumble, too.

Since he started his account around 2010, @MysteryExec — who gave every impression that he ranked in the Hollywood production ecosystem — spoke out for the underserved in Hollywood, for the downtrodden and disadvantaged toilers and maverick storytellers, for women and minorities and moviemaking substance over empty style. He went on several late-night rants about Hollywood that energized waves of conversation and won him legions of fans (and more than 16,000 followers, the most of any of Hollywood's Mystery accounts).

It's the end of the line for @MysteryExec.

His avatar, a midsection crop of U.S. track star Steve Prefontaine moments after falling just short of a medal in the 5,000 meters at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, never changed. His professed taste for Chivas and chasing skirts was just a part of the ruse, a consistent front that kept us guessing.

In the early days, when @MysteryExec was still chasing his first 1,000 followers, his bio challenged followers to discover his identity: "Call my office line, ask for Mystery Executive. If you're right, you've won $1,000." It was a game that Hollywood trade reporters, publicists and development executives at all levels played for months: Who is Mystery Exec?

"He could never have known how big the account would get," one Mystery Hollywood insider with knowledge of the situation told Mashable. "To his credit, the bigger it got, the more good use he put it to. I don't believe he's ever said a mean thing. And [@MysteryVP] was always just funny and sharp."

Mystery VP, whose avatar was Anna Karina smoking a cigarette, came aboard later. Purported to be Mystery Exec's colleague and close confidant, her tweets were less about social justice in Hollywood and more along the lines of biting existential observations. She, too was an advocate for change in Hollywood — she just did it with a different flair.

Mystery Exec also gave rise to dozens of imitators, many of them legitimate — and many of them now gone, too. @MysteryHelmer was a feature-film director; he deleted his account several weeks ago. Still operating are Mystery ScriptReader, Mystery Directrix and Mystery Actress.

Some of those have since decided to out themselves. @MysteryBritExec was the first; in January she came forward as Rachael Prior, a development executive at Big Talk Productions, the London-based company that works closely with Edgar Wright and his filmmaking posse. @MysteryGrip is Calvin Starnes, who has worked as a grip on dozens of films including The Hangover and TV shows like Parks and Recreation. And @MysteryCre8tve began making a name for himself on Twitter with a buzzsaw of profanity and truths — he's since dropped the mask and tweets as himself, Rantz Hoseley, a writer and art director with television shows in development and a hand in comic books and video games.

But @MysteryExec was the Tony Stark of the Mystery Hollywood shared universe, a group that was watched closely by Hollywood elite and cheered loudly by those who wished to be. His more than 46,000 tweets were an inspiration to struggling writers, actors and would-be directors; his message was always to strive to rise above Hollywood's nepotism, biases and penchant for making crap. He was fighting the good fight.

"He was a positive force that helped create #MysteryHollywood and, by extension, grew the Hollywood Twitter Community that already existed into a much larger space with many more people," a fellow Mystery account holder wrote to Mashable. "And these people have since created working relationships, friendships, and hopefully changed the way they approach their art and their work. He tried to stand up for all of the things we talk about every day."

Somewhere in the shadows there’s a maniac hiding with an idea that is going to kick everyone in the crotch. No agent, executive, or sane-minded person is going to tell this individual that their deranged grand vision can work. Italian neorealism, French New Wave, and New Hollywood didn’t happen because people waited by idly thumb-twiddling and staring at the sky. Filmmaking fools found unconventional ways of subverting the system or inventing a brand new one to service their artistic goals.

The reason I started an anonymous Twitter account was to bring something back that I missed about the movies: magic and mystery.

Bankability isn’t for the independent-minded, nor is it for those wishing to make something worth a damn. Never ask permission to make your statement. The payoff comes later.

"I gain nothing from him being fake other than minor sadness at being catfished," the fellow Mystery account holder told Mashable. "But, if he were real it would have made the weight of his words, many of which I agree(d) with, land with more authenticity. But, I would love Santa Claus to be real too, but sadly he is not. That said, Mystery Exec, like Santa Claus, is still a positive figure. And him being fake doesn’t make the things he said and advocated any less true or real. Message over messenger."

Does the message die when the messenger turns out to be a lie? Perhaps "lie" is too harsh a word — it feels that way, since I have been interacting with @MysteryExec from the early days. He would often star and retweet my tweets, and called me out for a #FF now and again. He did not answer multiple emails sent to an account that he and I have used to talk before.

And now, my naïveté is showing. As a friend told me today while I was poking around looking into this story, it always seemed suspicious that a studio executive — or even a mid-level production company man — would have the time (or take the risk) for such shenanigans. Maybe we all should've seen this coming.

Still, it's too bad. Because @MysteryExec was never the executive that Hollywood deserves. He's the one that it needs right now.

Mashable
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